


Midnight

by lilyconrad



Category: Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2018-11-26
Packaged: 2019-08-29 22:39:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16752793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilyconrad/pseuds/lilyconrad
Summary: A gentle moment between two twined in the Force, set just before A New Hope begins.





	Midnight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Thymesis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thymesis/gifts).



> For the Star Wars Rare Pair Collection: Hope you like it!

Luke wakes in the middle of the night, something stronger than the wind outside tugging the young man out of bed. He dresses and slips out of the house without making a sound, unsure of where he is going.

He never knows. Sometimes he walks to the ridge lifted in an eternal wave of stone to the north of the homestead, lying back on it to stare at the stars overhead, pinpoints of light so crisp it almost hurts to look at them.

Sometimes he keeps to the dunes just west, startling night creatures into hissing retreat away from him. The snakes leave sinuous tracks, rivers of silver in the moonlight. The lizards dust the sand with frantic marks. Luke smiles at all of them with no wish to chase them.

He is safe here. Not even the Sand People will bother him here.

He knows that as he glances down at the smooth stone in his hand. There is nothing remarkable about it save a few scratched lines that might be a symbol if one looks hard enough. It is one of three that line the narrow beam above his bed. Luke doesn’t remember collecting these rocks, and is sure there was only one to begin with, but it doesn’t bother him. They make him feel safe and warm, and he always takes one whenever he sneaks out of the house for these midnight wanderings.

The pull tonight is too strong for an idle walk, however. It feels as if it is coming from everywhere, from the craggy hills in the distance to the sky itself looming dark and vast overhead. Luke takes a deep breath and tries to focus in on it as he tucks the rock away in a pocket, to the river of light he can almost see stretching out before him despite the gusts of wind billowing his cloak out behind him.

He could walk along this path with his eyes closed, and when his feet take him up into the hills he is not surprised, nor is he when the sharp outlines of a building rise up, blocking out the lowest stars in the sky.

“Hello, Luke,” the lean figure in the doorway says, haloed by the dim light of a lamp at his side. “Come inside.”

Luke does not know this man, and yet he feels more familiar than the desert outside. “Who are you?”

There is only a chuckle as the shadow sets the lamp down on a table to reveal a careworn face edged in grey and white. “You ask me that every time.”

“Every time?” Luke closes the door behind him and sits across from the old man, the room cool and so quiet he can hear the sand gusting against the door outside.

“Yes. For the past year you have found your way to me, Luke. In the dead of night, past the Raiders and krayt dragons prowling about. No more sense in your head than your father had. What brings you tonight?”

None of what the man says bothers Luke despite the fact it makes no sense. It is like a dream, being here with this older man with the sharp, laughing eyes of one much younger. “Something feels strange,” Luke says, uncertain of how to put into words what he is feeling. “Powerful, but… building.”

“Your instincts are strong, Luke. I feel it too. Something will give soon, and when it does it will affect far more than the two of us.”

Luke reaches out and takes the man’s hand, tracing his fingers over his palm as he tries to think of what to say. This man almost glows with the same light Luke cannot quite see, the source of the strange energy that drew him here. He is fascinated by it.

“Ah, Luke. What do you want of an old, tired man?”

“I want… I don’t know. I want to know what it is. The light that brought me here. What I feel when I’m out in the dunes at night.”

“A longing for something more?”

“Yes.”

His companion shakes his head, not without affection. “So eager to throw yourself into the unknown. What if the light is dangerous? What if it is too strong for you?”

“It won’t hurt me.”

“Your father believed that too.”

Luke smiles. This is also familiar, this conversation, even though he has never had it before. “How else am I like him?”

The man grins, the silver of his beard catching in the dim light. “Stubborn. More stubborn than anyone should be.”

An idea comes to Luke at that loving smile, impulsive and brilliant and irresistible: he leans over to kiss this stranger. There is a softness to it, as delicate as the silence that falls over the room, and for a moment he can feel that beautiful, perfect light as clear as day in his mind.

The man pushes him back with a quiet laugh. “No, no, dear one. You are too precious to waste on an old man like myself.”

Luke frowns, mouth twisting. “I had my dawn ceremony a year ago. I am not a child.”

“I know.” His hands linger in Luke’s shirt, warm and firm and not letting him press any closer.

“So why did you stop me?”

“Because I am not the only one who might lose himself in the light of another.” Before Luke can say anything, the man reaches over into the shadows crowding the rest of the hut. He unfolds his hand to reveal a stone like the one weighing down Luke’s pocket. Simple, unremarkable.

“It is time for you to go home, Luke. You have found what you are looking for. For tonight.”

“I don’t want to go,” Luke says, but he finds himself reaching for the rock. “I want to stay here with you.”

“And you will. But not tonight. The tides of the Force are growing and I must keep a watch on them.” The man stands up, kindness in his eyes despite his words. “Now back out you go. To the desert and the stars.”

“Will I see you again?”

“Yes. I am sure of it.”

Luke smiles, and leans in for another kiss. The shadow, warm and strong, returns the kiss with a gentle one of his own, and then Luke is alone in the dunes.

There is a moment of confusion, a scattered memory of a lamp and a calm voice murmuring something he can’t understand.

It passes almost as quickly as it came, and Luke gives a sigh of contentment as he opens his hand to find a small, flat stone resting there. He doesn’t remember picking it up, but he is pleased at how smooth and pale it is, like the moons overhead.

This is what he came looking for, Luke tells himself as he tucks it into his pocket next to the other one. The stars are beautiful and the wind is sharp, and he takes the long way home, wanderlust satisfied for the night.    


End file.
